Without Reservation

When 8-year-old Drew Young-Pfieffer of Simi Valley listens to his grandmother talk of her life as a Micmac Indian years and years ago, he hears stories of fear, shame and discrimination.

Although she came from a Canadian band of Indians known for fearlessness of heights, she used to tell her neighbors that she was Pennsylvania Dutch.

But unlike his grandmother, this third-grader at Knolls Elementary School doesn’t try to hide his heritage.

Like many modern-day Indian children, Drew is proud of his tribal past. He wears his hair long, and it is a struggle to get him to take off his favorite bead-and-bone necklace. He also is glad to learn about Red Cloud and Chief Joseph during special study sessions at school.

“Drew has always been proud of where he comes from,” said his mother, Susan Pfeiffer. “Not like his grandmother, who just turned 70. When she was growing up it was different. You know how blacks were treated in the South? Native Americans were below them. That’s how bad it was.”

Drew’s strong cultural identification assures the teachers of the Ventura County Indian Education Consortium that they’re on the right track.

The group’s foremost mission is to make sure Native American students graduate from high school and go on to college. To make that happen, the consortium starts early, pulling young students out of class for a special program designed to instill pride in their Indian heritage.

At the elementary school level, students enrolled in the free program hear stories about Native American leaders and work on arts and crafts projects. In high school, they receive reams of scholarship applications, as well as lists of colleges and job opportunities.

Established in 1975 in the wake of the federal Indian Education Act, the consortium’s mission is not only to teach Native American children about their past, but also to ensure that they will have prosperous futures.

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“It’s been A, B, C for us all along,” said Floyd Beller, a Chickasaw who started the group two decades ago and retired last summer. “First it’s academic, then behavioral, and then cultural. We want our kids to be able to function just like everyone else. They can be doctors and lawyers too.”

Of the 1,050 students representing 40 tribes now enrolled in Ventura County, Beller estimates that about 97% graduate from high school and go on to college.

He attributes that in part to the academic and career counseling services offered by the program, which costs the federal government about $100 a student.

“Without it, there would be a big drop,” Beller said.

“We just don’t want them to fall through the cracks,” said Jerry Barshay, who took over Beller’s position in August. Compared to a decade ago, Barshay said that today’s Native American students “are a more serious group of kids, prouder of their heritage.”

He added: “This isn’t the ‘70s. There is more acceptance of native people. And in turn, Native Americans are proud of being the first people of this nation.”

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Since a federal report came out in the late 1960s documenting the high dropout rate of Native American high school students, 1,150 Indian education groups have sprouted up in the United States.

Of that number, 110 are in California. Ventura County’s program started with 100 students--all from Ventura--in 1975. The consortium went countywide in 1989, and Indian educators now serve 113 schools in eight districts: Conejo Valley Unified, Fillmore Unified, Hueneme, Oxnard, Oxnard Union High, Rio, Simi Valley Unified and Ventura Unified. Ventura now has about 500 students, the most in the county.

At E.P. Foster Elementary School in Ventura, about 20 youngsters recently colored scenes of horses, trees and warriors, while listening to teacher Betty Bow Withers recount the story of Red Chief, a Sioux born in 1922 who successfully persuaded United States troops to move their forts from his land in Kansas.

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“Oh cool,” said 7-year-old Lorraine Quintanilla when Withers held up a miniature Sioux headdress, showing that white meant purity and red stood for power.

Then Lorraine pointed at her teacher’s gold-and-black fringed shirt: “Ooooh, pretty.”

When Lorraine goes on to high school, her Indian education tutors will leave some of the cultural lessons behind and focus more on getting her into college.

A typical high school has one counselor for hundreds of students, said Cathi Holguin, a mother of three Mascalero Apache daughters in the Conejo Valley Unified School District. So, the special counselor for Native American students is a real boon for helping find scholarships.

Tiffany Dixon, a freshman at Ventura High School who is part Cherokee, Mohawk and Seminole, agreed that special help is needed for Native Americans, even in today’s more tolerant society.

“Back then, maybe one out of a million Indians went to college,” she said, adding that she joined the Indian education group when her grades began to drop. “But I know the percentage will go up because of programs like this.”

FYI

Parents of public school students of Indian, Native Hawaiian or Alaska Native descent may enroll their children at no cost in the Ventura County Indian Education Consortium. Documentation is not required. To register, call director Jerry Barshay at 652-7273 by Friday.